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Armenian–Tatar massacres of 1905–07
| strength4 = | casualties4 = }} The Armenian–Tatar massacres (also known as the Armenian-Tartar war and the Armeno-Tartar war and more recently, the 'Azeri-Armenian war'Nicholas W. Miller. Nagorno-Karabakh: A War without Peace. Kristen Eichensehr (ed.), W. Michael Reisman (ed.) Stopping Wars and Making Peace: Studies in International Intervention. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2009) refers to the bloody inter-ethnic confrontation between Armenians and Azerbaijanis (at the time commonly referred to as "Tatars")Suha Bolukbasi. Nation-building in Azerbaijan. Willem van Schendel (ed.), Erik Jan Zürcher (ed.). Identity politics in Central Asia and the Muslim world. I.B.Tauris, 2001. "Until the 1905—6 Armeno-Tatar (the Azeris were called Tatars by Russia) war, localism was the main tenet of cultural identity among Azeri intellectuals."Joseph Russell Rudolph. Hot spot: North America and Europe. ABC-CLIO, 2008. "To these larger moments can be added dozens of lesser ones, such as the 1905-06 Armenian-Tartar wars that gave Azeris and Armenians an opportunity to kill one another in the areas of Armenia and Azerbaijan that were then controlled by Russia..." throughout the Caucasus in 1905–1907.Britannica Online Encyclopedia. Azerbaijan. History.Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary. TurksWillem van Schendel, Erik Jan Zürcher. Identity Politics in Central Asia and the Muslim World: Nationalism, Ethnicity and Labour in the Twentieth Century. I.B.Tauris, 2001. ISBN 1-86064-261-6, ISBN 978-1-86064-261-6, p. 43 The massacres started during the Russian Revolution of 1905, and claimed hundreds of lives. The most violent clashes occurred in 1905 in February in Baku, in May in Nakhchivan, in August in Shusha and in November in Elizavetopol, heavily damaging the cities and the Baku oilfields. Some violence, although of lesser scale, broke out also in Tbilisi. According to professor Firuz Kazemzadeh, "it is impossible to pin the blame for the massacres on either side. It seems that in some cases (Baku, Elizavetpol) the Azerbaijanis fired the first shots, in other cases (Shusha, Tiflis) the Armenians."Firuz Kazemzadeh. Struggle For Transcaucasia (1917—1921), New York Philosophical Library, 1951 The clashes were not confined to the towns, and, according to Swietochowswki, citing Armenian sources 128 Armenian and 158 Azerbaijani villages were destroyed or pillaged,Cornell, Svante. Small Nations and Great Powers: A Study of Ethnopolitical Conflict in the Caucasus, p. 69. while the overall estimates of lives lost vary widely, ranging from 3,000 to 10,000, with Azerbaijanis suffering higher losses,Tadeusz Swietochowski. Russia and Azerbaijan: A Borderland in Transition. Columbia University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-231-07068-3, ISBN 978-0-231-07068-3 which stemmed from Azeri mobs being organized poorly and Dashnaks on the Armenian side being more effective.Cornell, Svante. Small Nations and Great Powers: A Study of Ethnopolitical Conflict in the Caucasus, p. 56. In Baku According to van der Leeuw clashes started in early February 1905 over the killing of a Tatar schoolboy and shopkeeper by Armenians. 126 Tatars (Azeris) and 218 Armenians were killed during four days of fighting in Baku. Armenians sources such as Dasnabedian, or Walker claim that Azeris had started the conflict which gave Armenians a reason to give a strong response, Tatars had killed many unarmed Armenians in Baku, in February 1905. Walker also said that, "Tatars were free to massacre with impunity".Svante E. Cornell. Small nations and great powers. page 55 13 September 1905 — in the Paris edition of the New York Herald: In Nakhichevan After the Baku clashes, Moslem communities in the Nakhichevan district began smuggling consignments of weapons from Persia. By April, murders of Armenians in the district began to assume alarming proportions and they applied to the Russian authorities for protection. However, Villari describes the district's governor as "bitterly anti-Armenian", and the vice-governor in Yerevan as an "Armenophobe".Villari, Luigi. Fire and Sword in the Caucasus. London: T. F. Unwin, 1906 ISBN 0-7007-1624-6 p. 270. On the 25th May, acting on a prearranged plan, bands of armed Tartars attacked the market area in the district capital, the town of Nakhichevan, looting and burning Armenian businesses and killing any Armenians they could find. About 50 Armenians were murdered and some of the shopkeepers were burnt alive in their shops. The same day, Tartar villagers from the countryside began attacking their Armenian neighbours. Villari cites official reports mentioning that out of a total of 52 villages with Armenian or mixed Armenian-Tartar populations, 47 were attacked, and of that 47, 19 were completely destroyed and abandoned by their inhabitants. The total number of dead, including those in Nachichevan town, was 239. Later, in a revenge attack, Armenians attacked a Tartar village, killing 36 people".Villari, Luigi. Fire and Sword in the Caucasus. London: T. F. Unwin, 1906 ISBN 0-7007-1624-6 p. 270-274. In Shusha According to Thomas de Waal in Shusha, "the number of killed and wounded amounted to about 300, of whom about two thirds were Tartars, for the Armenians were better shots and also enjoyed the ad-vantage of position. In Ganja File:Azeri (tatar) victim in Baku.jpg|A Tatar victim of the massacres in Baku File:Tatarmas.jpg|The village of Djagry in Nakhichevan district: "the house of a rich Armenian burnt by Tartars".[http://armenianhouse.org/villari/caucasus/fire-and-sword.html Villari, Luigi. Fire and Sword in the Caucasus.] London: T. F. Unwin, 1906 ISBN 0-7007-1624-6 p. 285 File:Churchplunderda.jpg|An Armenian church in Gyaz village in Nakhichevan district "plundered and desecrated by Tartars".[http://armenianhouse.org/villari/caucasus/fire-and-sword.html Villari. Fire and Sword], p. 290 File:Berdadzor.jpg|A monument in Berdadzor, Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, to Armenian victims of the 1905–1907 Armenian-Tatar Massacres. File:Natchivanm.jpg|Nakhichevan, the corpses of Armenians after the May massacre. See also *Nagorno-Karabakh War *List of massacres in Azerbaijan References Bibliography *Luigi Villari (1906), Fire and Sword in the Caucasus http://armenianhouse.org/villari/caucasus/fire-and-sword.html, London, T. F. Unwin, ISBN 0-7007-1624-6 *Thomas De Waal (2004), Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan Through Peace and War, NYU Press, ISBN 978-0-8147-1945-9 Category:History of Armenia Category:History of Azerbaijan Category:History of Georgia (country) Category:Russian Empire Category:1905 in Armenia Category:Mass murder in 1905 Category:Mass murder in 1906 Category:Mass murder in 1907 Category:1905 in Russia Category:1906 in Russia Category:1907 in Russia Category:1905 in Georgia (country) Category:20th century in Armenia Category:Massacres in Azerbaijan Category:1906 in Armenia Category:1907 in Armenia